Jordan, Egypt, Syria Set to Inaugurate Electricity Network

Jordan's King Abdullah II and the Egyptian and Syrian presidents, Hosni Mubarak and Bashar al-Assad, will inaugurate a trilateral electricity network

Jordan's King Abdullah II and the Egyptian and Syrian presidents, Hosni Mubarak and Bashar al-Assad, will inaugurate a trilateral electricity network in Damascus Wednesday, said reports.

An Egyptian presidential source told the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that Mubarak would have talks with Assad ahead of an Arab summit in Amman on March 27.

Mubarak’s talks with Assad will also focus on ways of expanding bilateral ties.

It will be Mubarak’s second visit to Damascus. His first visit was in January.

Meanwhile, an official from the palace told AFP that the king's visit was tied to the electricity link-up between Syria and Jordan.

The director general of Syria's electricity authority, Zaki Odeh, said in January that tests for linking with the Jordanian and Egyptian electricity grids have been completed and that the project would soon be inaugurated.

The linkup required erecting a 360 kilometer line connecting the Syrian and Jordanian networks, with a capacity of 400 kilovolts, he said.

The Jordanian and Egyptian networks were linked in March 1999 by an underwater cable, as part of a project launched in 1996 aimed at connecting the grids of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Iraq.

The next phases of the network should link Syria with Turkey and Lebanon. The 400 kilovolt line 350 kilometers (219 miles) long between Syria and Turkey should be ready by the end of 2001, and that with Lebanon in 2002 – Albawaba.com